


Good Intentions with Disastrous Results

by summerxblessings



Category: Infinite (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Angry!Sunggyu, Comedy, Devil-like but cute! Woohyun, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Honestly I miss their interactions, Hyung line annoying Sunggyu but what's new, M/M, Maknae line being annoying students, Romantic Comedy, Students!Sungyeol Myungsoo and Sungjong, Teacher!Sunggyu Woohyun Dongwoo and Howon, There's swearing cause I have a potty mouth, enjoy, friendship to romance, woogyu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-02 08:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17260946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerxblessings/pseuds/summerxblessings
Summary: {AU} Woohyun and Sunggyu are good friends, single since forever after a few failed relationships, though not for a lack of trying. Woohyun tries to help Sunggyu with charming the lady who has recently caught his eye. Operative word is try.Hilarity and disastrous results ensue.





	1. {prologue}

**Author's Note:**

> This work has also been posted on AFF under the same username and title. It may be posted onto Wattpad in the future, again, under the same username and title. 
> 
> Please be advised I tend to update the fastest on AFF.
> 
> My profile can be found on the mentioned websites here:  
> https://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/111319  
> https://www.wattpad.com/user/summerxblessings

 

If there was one thing in the whole wide world that Kim Sunggyu was sure of, it was that he was purely and utterly done with Nam Woohyun and his bullshit.

That, and once he got his hands on the man, he was going to be officially over. Vanished. Extinct from this earth. He would be a distant memory, just like the dinosaurs.

Well, that was exactly what ran through his mind the second he had walked into his class after the regular hour for homeroom that morning and stared at the whiteboard in shock.

On the whiteboard was a confession. In particular, a confession that Sunggyu had no part in.

Written in blue marker boldly was “Will you please date me, Ms. Jeon?” Decorated around the bold question were drawn-on streamers and balloons, something Sunggyu was sure Woohyun had enlisted someone else to do—most likely Dongwoo, the only teacher at the school that played a part in Woohyun and his shenanigans. Sunggyu also had no doubt in his mind that the hearts drawn around sporadically was the work of Woohyun, who loved to draw hearts everywhere as if Valentines’ day were every day.

The incriminating evidence that pinned the disaster on the board with his name was that right underneath the bold question was “Signed, Kim Sunggyu (the cutest hamster-teacher ever)”. What Sunggyu could decipher as a poorly drawn hamster was right beside said line.

And right underneath was “( ) Yes” written in large print, underlined and had sparkles draw around it, and in significantly smaller, almost illegible size was “( ) No”.

Woohyun had outdone himself this time. Really. What was the idiot thinking? He had no idea whose idea it was—Dongwoo’s or Woohyun’s, but he was out for blood after this.

Ms. Jeon had taken sick leave suddenly in the morning, and her homeroom class as a result, didn’t have homeroom or history. The mess on the board had been there for at least two hours already.

Sunggyu wished that the floor would open and swallow him whole.

 _Don’t worry,_ he had said.

 _I’ve got everything under control,_ he had winked. He was sure that the younger man had been tempted to even have the nerve to throw him finger hearts or something of the sort. Sunggyu’s slight twitch of eyebrow and fingers at the time had deterred him from even carrying out the action.

 _You’ll be thanking me at the wedding,_ he had boasted. He always had his head in the clouds—but Sunggyu had been too worried about what the help had entailed that he didn’t register what was said.

What he had forgotten to say to warn him and at least have Sunggyu try to stop whatever shenanigans he had planned: _I enlisted the help of the genius-idiot literature teacher named Jang Dongwoo._

And also, this: _Oh, and in case you forgot, I love making your life a living hell, even though we’re best friends and we’re technically supposed to look out for each other._

Kim Sunggyu could only stare at the scene before him in befuddled confusion and mortification, which slowly grew to an inexplicable feeling of dread, followed by a feeling of rage that would scare any demon into the deepest parts of hell.

_Breath in. Breath out. Kim Sunggyu, you are the bigger person. You will not get mad. You will not get mad. You will be quiet and composed, like the mature person you are. Now pick up the whiteboard eraser and erase it._

_Breath in_ —Sunggyu couldn’t take it anymore. He began with rolling up his sleeves after adjusting the cuff links and unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt, his temperature rising at an inhuman rate. He was sure that if he were a kettle, his lid would have popped out by now and made a dent in the ceiling. He rotated his shoulders, bending his neck from side to side, hearing a satisfying crack.

“Mr. Kim is angry,” someone at the back of the classroom whispered; there were snickers from other students in the class from the obvious statement. Sunggyu could barely hear the teen named Lee Sungjong, who liked stating the obvious sometimes. Sometimes Sunggyu was sure that he did it on purpose to egg him on. However, that was the least of his concerns and at the moment. All he could see was red.

“He’s turning red,” another student commented, none other than the class clown Lee Sungyeol—whom Sunggyu was sure was also always out to get him. No matter how many detentions he gave that kid, it never deterred him from pulling another prank. Kim Myungsoo, the one student who was close with the class clown and who seemed quiet at first but never shut up when he had something to talk about, thankfully, this time, just opted for a slight snicker. However, that was enough to trigger Sunggyu even more.

If he could graph his cortisol* levels, where the levels were plotted on the y-axis and the time plotted on the x-axis, he was sure the relationship between the two variables would be modelled by an exponential function. He was supposed to be teaching the class exponential functions and how to graph them, actually; it was written in his lesson plans but that was the last thing on his mind now.

“Nam. Woo. Hyun!” Sunggyu’s enraged cry rung out and even those on the first floor could hear him at that exact moment, which was a feat, considering how he was situated on the third floor of the school.

Somewhere in the school, on the second floor, where Woohyun was sitting by the piano and playing a harmonic scale to warm up his students in preparation for the choral number they were going to practice for class that day, he could only pause for a second before resuming the scale he was playing. He had heard that distinct, enraged cry. He recognized that from anywhere.

He swallowed hard. Did he do something wrong…?

Sunggyu loved him too much to kill him… _right?_

That was when the door to the music room sprang open with a fuming Sunggyu behind it.

And the two, consequently… half an hour later, found themselves facing a very stern and annoyed principal in his office.

\--

cortisol* -> a hormone that is present in the body, typically when you are stressed.

 


	2. {one}

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! Will update again in the next day or so. Thanks for the interest! :)

 “I can’t believe you didn’t think my plan was genius,” Woohyun had the audacity to complain as they walked out of the principal’s office after a good scolding for the events that happened earlier in the morning. “The principal had no words after I explained what I did to help you out, so I’m pretty sure that he thought my plan was pretty good.”

“He was awestruck by my planning abilities and by your sheer stupidity for not being grateful,” Woohyun continued, lifting his head a little to point his nose in the air.

Sunggyu sometimes also wondered how anyone could be this dense.

The principal had given Sunggyu such a pitying stare after he heard what Woohyun had done. Sunggyu had almost withered into oblivion from just that one look in shame of being friends with the idiot who looked so proud of what he did.

Sunggyu opted to ignore what Woohyun said, because he could not see the reason to the madness that Woohyun had just uttered from his lips.

Woohyun continued to yammer away with Sunggyu half-listening and half-not, wondering how in the hell he was ever going to walk the halls of the school without ever feeling shame. He was sure that the entire school, even Ms. Jeon, would hear about what transpired by the end of the school day.

Again, Sunggyu wished that the ground would just swallow him whole at this point.

“Anyway, I just hope you know that this was just the start of it if you really didn’t like it. It all goes uphill from here on out.”

 _That_ caught Sunggyu’s attention.

Immediately, he turned to look at his not-best friend dead in the eyes, “Please… repeat that again because I believe I have not heard you correctly.”

“You’ve heard right ol’ man,” Woohyun said, clearing his throat and standing up taller. Sunggyu’s eyebrow twitched from the ‘cute’ nickname that Woohyun had bestowed upon him years ago. His fingers began to shiver a little in rage, but he held his inner demons in, in favour of listening to what he had to say so he could prevent another disaster from occurring. “I have something bigger and better planned.”

The blood almost immediately drained from his face. Then it began to have some colour again as his blood pressure began to rise.

Sunggyu took a very deep breath in. Then he let it out.

_In. Out. In. Out._

At some point during his breathing exercises to calm himself down, Sunggyu was sure that he was going to have to find a paper bag to breathe into because at this rate, he was going to be hyper-oxygenated and induce himself into a state of hyperoxia*.

“Are you okay?” Woohyun asked. “Are you that excited?” He grinned, throwing an arm across Sunggyu’s shoulders, “I knew you’d come around! Tell me, you’re just pretending to be angry right? You’re just kind of embarrassed because the kids in your math class saw it. Don’t worry, next time I’ll make sure Mrs. Jeon is actually around and it won’t be a complete bust.”

Sunggyu felt his main artery almost rupture from that last sentence Woohyun said because regardless if Mrs. Jeon came to school today or not, it was a big embarrassment and huge blow to his character. And if it were up to him, it would be the last sentence Woohyun ever uttered.

Sunggyu glared at Woohyun, who finally caught on that Sunggyu was not pleased.

He gulped, slowly detaching his arm from where it sat on Sunggyu’s shoulders.

“Okay, I get that you’re super embarrassed and I don’t blame you. But hey! We all got to live life a little and experience some embarrassment, you know. It makes us more human and everyone thinks you’ve kind of got a pole stuck up your butt.”

He continued to ramble on, hoping that he could get himself out of it. He’d been on the receiving end of that scathing stare many times in his life and each time he received it, he had nearly seen the devil himself each and every time. “And you know, they’re kind of right. You _do_ have a pole stuck up your butt sometimes because you never relax and it makes you kind of unpleasant to be around. But I know it’s just an act because you’re actually the most awkward and embarrassing hamster ever, so I just wanted to let everyone know your true character.”

He was going to continue, but he was interrupted.

“Are you quite done?” Sunggyu’s eyes narrowed and it was clear that his eyebrows were twitching uncontrollably.

“Um… yea.” He squeaked. Then he gulped. “I uh… just remembered I had something to do that way.” He pointed awkwardly in the opposite direction in which they were originally heading.

Sunggyu cracked his knuckles a little, maintaining eye contact with Woohyun, who began to sweat a little out of nervousness.

“Haha,” Woohyun laughed nervously then started in a quick jog down the hallway. “Got to go!”

Sunggyu followed, trailing behind slowly in a very ominous manner. That was when Woohyun knew he was serious, and it was time to run like a bat out of hell if he wanted to see the next sunrise.

With a silent scream, knowing that they would get into trouble for disrupting classes and land themselves back in the principal’s office, Woohyun ran for his life down the spiraling stairs of the school. Deciding that running in the hallways was not the best, he made a beeline for the outdoor field in the centre of the school building.

As he approached the door leading out to the field, he looked behind him and almost instantly regretted it. Running right behind him was Sunggyu, looking like he was possessed by the Grudge, almost immediately urging Woohyun to run even faster.

And that was how the whole school witnessed two of their teachers running around on the school field, with Mr. Kim chasing after Mr. Nam like a mad man in an attempt to annihilate him but obviously failing miserably. Mr. Nam was clearly enjoying it to some extent, because he was making faces at Mr. Kim to taunt him, while also looking like he was scared for his life whenever Mr. Kim got close to catching him.

“Is he trying to build muscles for Ms. Jeon with Mr. Nam as his hype man? Or are they putting up another comedy show?” Sungyeol asked Sungjong who was standing right at the window with him, Myungsoo directly beside him.

Ever since Mr. Kim had transferred to the school at the beginning of the year, everyone had found him to be a strict and rather commandeering teacher. Now… there was definitely some evidence that the poor man was just trying to live in his peace, but his friend just wouldn’t let him.

“Who knows?” Sungjong shrugged a little. “Poor man actually looks like he wants to kill his friend, actually.”

They all observed Mr. Kim screaming something inaudible.

“Yea, that looks more like it,” Sungyeol agreed.

Myungsoo just quietly chuckled.

From the principal’s office that also overlooked the school field, the principal could only sigh heavily as let go of the blinds that he had partially parted with his index and middle finger. He had heard some barely audible yelling and wanted to check up on what was going on because he was sure that there were no classes outside for physical education that period.

Instead of seeing something within reason, he witnessed the two bumbling teachers acting like buffoons on the field like they were still high school students. He felt a headache coming on.

There was always something going on with those two—he should think about requesting a transfer for one of them to a different high school for the upcoming year, so he could finally have some peace and quiet.

Mr. Nam just loved bothering Mr. Kim and it would be a lie to say that it wasn’t slightly amusing. His mouth twitched a little.

Mr. Kim needed to loosen up a little anyway.

He closed his eyes, leaning back against his chair so that it reclined, “I’m just going to pretend that I didn’t see that.”

\--

*When you have too much air in your bloodstream, it can actually be very harmful, which is why you are encouraged to breathe into a paper bag if you are, say, hyperventilating. This is so that you will also breathe in carbon dioxide and help maintain the balance in your bloodstream.


	3. {two}

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! :)

Since the beginning, when they first met one another, Sunggyu had known that Woohyun was a pain in the derrière.

Their fathers had been best friends in university and somehow for some reason (Sunggyu was almost sure that it was the gods conspiring against him for all the misdeeds he had done as a toddler), they had kept in touch afterwards when they started their respective careers. That ended with the two of them eventually working for the same company, once Sunggyu’s father’s company went bankrupt and Woohyun’s father had pulled some connections and helped Sunggyu’s father get hired at the company he worked at.

That was when Woohyun unabashedly entered his life, annoying voice and over-exaggerated movements, and his life had never quite been the same ever since. As in, he never had peace and quiet for more than a week.

Prior to that, Sunggyu and his mother had only ever saw Mr. Nam, who visited for dinner every other Sunday. Once his father and Mr. Nam started working at the same company, the frequency of seeing Mr. Nam increased to pretty much daily and with that increase in visits also led to more encounters with Woohyun, who was a brat in elementary school when they met. Sunggyu, on the other hand, had just entered middle school at that point.

Sunggyu abandoned his book on the table in the living room after quickly bookmarking where he was just reading. The doorbell had rung. His father opened the door and greeted Mr. Nam. Sunggyu followed suit, knowing that it was only polite to greet people as they came into their house.

It was supposed to be an ordinary Friday evening visit from Mr. Nam when two figures literally materialized out of nowhere right behind him as soon as he stepped through the threshold.

Standing there was a very tidy and strict-looking woman who was holding hands with a child who looked no older than Sunggyu.

After exchanging greetings with his parents, the unfamiliar woman adjusted her height slightly to address Sunggyu.

“Hello,” the woman said, grinning a little at Sunggyu. “You must be Sunggyu.”

Sunggyu nodded his head, affirming. He gave a small little bow, “Hello, you must be Mrs. Nam. Welcome to our house.”

“My, how polite!” she exclaimed and then she pulled a little at the hand that was holding hands with the young boy. “This is Woohyun over here. Don’t mind him,” she said as he shuffled backwards a little to hide behind her. “He’s a little shy around strangers. But I hope the two of you get along well.”

“Say hello to Sunggyu- _hyung_ ,” his mother prodded at Woohyun, giving him a small, gentle smile. Woohyun just gave a small nod to Sunggyu, hiding behind his mother.

“That’s not very nice. Come on out and say hi.”

At that point Sunggyu just smirked a little at the boy, wondering how he had lived this far in life if he were this shy meeting strangers.

“It’s alright,” Sunggyu said. “I don’t mind that he’s quiet and shy. I would rather read a book than play anyway. He can play by himself.” Sunggyu thought back to the book that he had previously set down. It was getting to the climax of the story and he couldn’t wait to continue reading.

He didn’t quite like playing with people younger than him—they were always so annoying and demanded so much out of him. They were always demanding so much energy that he didn’t have to give. He also got back pain occasionally (not that he would ever admit to getting back pain that early in life) and he would rather not.

Just as he went back to musing about the book he was reading, his thoughts were rudely interrupted by the one and only.

“Hi Sunggyu.”

Sunggyu snapped out of his thoughts immediately.

No honorific was added to the back of his name by the younger boy. Sunggyu twitched a little.

Woohyun was immediately scolded, “He is older than you! You have to add the proper honorific!”

Woohyun scowled a little and then addressed Sunggyu appropriately. However, the second his mother let go of his hand and turned her back to them, as did the other adults, as they headed towards the kitchen, Woohyun stuck out his tongue at Sunggyu.

Sunggyu was flabbergasted, wondering if he had imagined it. The elementary school child had the audacity to turn around once more as he tried to follow his mom into the kitchen to stick out his tongue once again, even embellishing it by lowering one of his lower eyelids to show Sunggyu the disgusting red tissue that was protected by the lower lids.

Sunggyu was ready to attack him right then and there.

Immediately, Woohyun straightened up to look up at his mother turned to look at the two children and told the two of them, “The adults are going to talk for a little bit before dinner so can the two of you go on to the living room and play together? We won’t be long.”

“Okay Mommy,” Woohyun nodded and then walked into the living room without even needing to be shown where to go, ignoring Sunggyu.

Sunggyu watched with an indignant expression on his face, mouth open wide. He followed the kid mutely and the kid turned back to sneer at him, his mouth still open, “Close your mouth, or else a fly will fly into it, _ugly_.”

That was how the adults found the two children roughhousing with one another about fifteen minutes later in dead silence (to not alert the adults that they were fighting with each other, of course). Sunggyu looked like he was getting beat up by a younger child, although he had a fiery look in his eyes that clearly indicated that he didn’t want to admit defeat.

Mr. and Mrs. Kim looked like they were ready to pull their son out and prevent him from being bullied further but they stopped, when the two Nams signalled for them to halt.

“My, my,” Woohyun’s mother had clapped her hands happily. “They’re getting along splendidly! We were a little worried before coming here because Woohyun doesn’t get along with people in his class. It’s such a relief that they’re getting along well!”

“I agree,” Mr. Nam said, giving a rather happy smile towards the children who, to the Kims, looked more like they were trying to kill each other than have fun. “It’s so great to see Woohyun enjoying himself.”

Mr. Kim just decided to clear his throat and not agree or disagree with his best friend and his wife, “Well, it’s time to eat dinner so we should break it up…” he gave his wife a side-eye and she did the same, the two thinking the same thing.

“Alright, time to break it up!” Mrs. Kim said, clapping her hands to get their attention and stepping in between the two of them before they needed to rush to the emergency room for broken bones. The two boys looked over, not realizing that they had an audience for quite some time already.

Immediately, they dropped the fistfuls of hair that they had of each other’s and grinned sheepishly at their parents in a very angelic manner.

“Hi Mom and Dad,” they said in unison to their respective parents. Though they gave each other a small, evil side-eye and a ‘ _harrumph!’_ that the Kims didn’t miss.

Sunggyu winced a little at his parents’ sharp looks when they made eye contact.

And that was how Sunggyu got into trouble for the first time in his life that night, after Woohyun and his parents left.

Sunggyu had pouted at his parents, saying Woohyun had started it. His parents didn’t want to hear it and he continued to pout throughout the week at his parents who confiscated his gaming counsels until Friday rolled around again.

Woohyun and his mother came along again for Mr. Nam’s weekly dinner visits.

This time, however, the two families went out to a family restaurant for dinner. Mrs. Kim had been far too busy to prepare a meal since she had to work a little overtime and Mr. Kim—well, he’d always had two left feet in the kitchen.

That was how the two boys found themselves scowling at each other from the direct opposite sides of the dinner table.

Sunggyu received a small, sharp look from his mom almost immediately, reprimanding him for his behaviour. Immediately, he stopped and pouted instead.

Woohyun gave his little, evil grin and it took all of Sunggyu’s willpower then to not smack the plate of ddeokbeokki ramyeon into the evil, short goblin’s face.

Dinner proved to be uneventful for the two children aside for a few glares here and there, though the talking between the adults never stopped. After dinner, they walked towards the nearest park to spend some more time together. The two children were urged to play together on the playground while the adults sat on a nearby bench together.

The two children merely glared at each other when they arrived at the playground and went their separate ways.

Sunggyu was having the time of his life climbing up slides even though he wasn’t supposed to, but his parents were a little distracted and he had always wanted to do that. Anyway, he was happily minding his own business as he made his way back down the slide by sliding down when he heard a small yelp of pain.

Curious, he decided to investigate, rounding around the west side of the playground by ducking underneath the slide and walking underneath the play structure’s structure. He saw a horde of little kids who looked to be elementary school aged gathering around something underneath the play structure.

The area was obscured from the adults’ line of sight, since there were slides in all directions and one would need to peek in under the play structure’s structure to see what was going on.

Sunggyu almost laughed at the site, since the kids were acting almost as if they were little monkeys that were curiously gathering. More and more of them piled underneath the structure, to a grand total of perhaps ten or so.

Hell, he was one too then. He joined the kids to look at what they were so interested in.

In the centre was Woohyun, who looked like he wanted to cry.

“Cry all you want loser,” one of the boys drawled, and Sunggyu immediately identified it as probably the leader of the pack of monkeys. He was holding a big stick and he prodded at Woohyun with it. “But no one’s going to help you because no one likes you.”

Woohyun didn’t say anything but glared at him.

“How dare you look at me like that!” the bully bellowed and was just about to swing the big stick down on him when Sunggyu decided he had enough. He didn’t like the dumb, little kid-devil, but he wasn’t going to stand around and watch someone get pushed around.

Before his dad’s company went bankrupt, Sunggyu used to go to a very well-respected private school. Since his dad lost his job and got the new job at Woohyun’s father’s company, he hadn’t been living the same luxurious lifestyle that he used to. They had sold their old house and they now lived in a smaller dwelling. He had also been transferred to a local school; the education was clearly a little lacklustre compared to his old school but Sunggyu wasn’t going to complain.

Just from looking at the clothing that the other boys were wearing, Sunggyu could tell that Woohyun was targeted because he wasn’t the “same” as the rest of them… and they were probably also jealous. From what he knew, the kid-devil went to a well-respected elementary school where he had a full-ride scholarship because he had scored in the ninety-ninth percentile on the entrance exams.

Again, Sunggyu didn’t like the kid but that didn’t justify the others bullying him.

It made him feel indignant.

“Leave him alone!” Sunggyu thundered and all of the little kids stopped what they were doing to look at him, the lone middle school kid who was towering over all of them with a murderous look in his eyes. That look alone made many of them scream out in fear and run for their lives. The leader, his knees shaking and hitting each other, managed to squeak out a, “I need to go” before he dropped his stick and ran to find his parents, joining all the others.

 “Are you alright?” Sunggyu asked, helping the kid-devil up, wondering if he was going to live to regret the moment. Maybe the kid-devil was going to kick him in the shin, injure him so badly, and leave him there to rot.

To his surprise, the kid-devil just muttered a small thanks, dusting himself off. His eyes were a little watery.

It was from that day forward they somehow became inseparable in that Woohyun was almost glued permanently to Sunggyu’s side. He followed him around like one would expect a celebrity to be followed by the paparazzi.

Sunggyu almost missed the kid-devil from the beginning.

(Woohyun was still very annoying, though in a different way.)

He just hoped Woohyun quickly entered middle school so that he would drown in homework and be unable to visit as often as he did and also be unable bother Sunggyu as much as he did.

Then, all hell broke loose during a dinner late in June when Sunggyu found out Woohyun was going to the same middle school as him in September, even though there was a closer one to where the Nams lived.

“But why?” Sunggyu had heard himself ask, ready to bury himself in a hole somewhere to avoid the younger boy.

“You’re my favourite!” twelve-year-old Woohyun cheered, “I want to be by Sunggyu- _hyung_ forever and forever!”

Sunggyu could only let his eyebrow twitch slightly in irritation and say nothing when both of his parents shot him a look that said, ‘ _Shut up and accept your fate’_.

And so he did.


	4. {three}

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last update for this week. Updates might be slow from now on because I'm back to school. Thanks for reading!  
> Leave a comment if you enjoyed it! :)  
> Comments are my motivating to be honest. :"))))

If anyone had told him last week that he was going to be at the dead bottom of the Teacher Ranking in the teachers’ shared bureau, he would have laughed in their faces. He wasn’t the best teacher, of course, since he was new to the whole shenanigans after realizing that pursuing a doctor’s degree in applied statistical science was not what he wanted after he finished his master’s degree. But he was very competent and very promising and consistently ranked within the top five of the Teacher Ranking.

Teacher Rankings were consistently posted every single week on Friday, right after school clubs have finished meeting for the day. Sunggyu himself was the faculty supervisor of the Rock Club that was just formed this school year under his constant nagging and pushing for students who were interested in rock music to join. He had high hopes and wanted his club members to perform at a school event—from what he garnered, quite a few of the members in his club had some sort of musical background and they could probably pull something together. But that, of course, was something to think about in detail in the coming months.

As he stared in shock at the weekly Teacher Ranking, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to one person that could have been responsible for this abysmal ranking.

 _Nam Woohyun_.

It seemed that ever since his best friend had re-entered his daily life, he was causing so much trouble Sunggyu was too flabbergasted to even yell at the man seriously because he was sure Woohyun would definitely give him the “I can’t believe you think I’m evil and trying to ruin your life” puppy eyes. He had no one to blame but the Nams, who were quite oblivious themselves for Woohyun’s inability to read social contexts and situations properly.

Lee Howon, the physical education teacher at the school for the male students, much to Sunggyu’s dismay, was there to see his firsthand reaction. He could already see the news of how he reacted to the Teacher Ranking spread like wildfire to the other faculty members. Howon was a rather cunning and sarcastic man who loved stirring up drama for the heck of it, but from what Sunggyu had observed, he very much enjoyed front row seat to drama even more.

Howon apparated out of nowhere and sipped his tea in a very calm and collected manner. He made a small gesture that indicated he was checking the ranking with Sunggyu (and Sunggyu would swear that he planned to drink tea at that very moment just to annoy the hell out of him). If he could swear on it, he swore that he saw the other’s lips twitch slightly in a hint of a shit-eating grin. Of course, that was so quickly wiped away after it appeared that he almost thought he imagined it.

However, taking one good look at the very neutral and passive expression on the other teacher’s face was enough for him to know that he was definitely finding pleasure in his misery. They had been rivals in high school, often competing for the top grades in the entire grade. They had some sort of animosity towards each other, although it was mainly because they were both competitive and didn’t like being outplaced.

Howon’s little figurine sat proudly in the first tier. He ranked first this week.

“Well, look at that,” he drawled a little, though not to the extent that Sunggyu could call him out for being rather smug. He patted Sunggyu on the back, “You were ranked last this week. That’s alright, there’s always room for improvement.”

The rankings were decided by other teachers in the high school and it was based on aptitude, cooperation, responsibility and maturity when dealing with students and other faculty members.

Sunggyu twitched a little.

At least Woohyun was—then he did a doubletake and almost choked on his spit. _How the hell was he above him in ranking!_

It was only one ranking above him on the little tower plaque that had been constructed for the purposes of the Teacher Ranking, but Sunggyu was still very disgruntled by the fact that he was dead last.

“But this is great,” Howon said, slinging an arm around Sunggyu as if they were best buddies. Hint: they were not. It took every inch of Sunggyu’s willpower to not fling the guy’s arm to the other end of the Pacific Ocean just to get rid of the smug tone in his voice.

“We finally have a decent nickname for you, other than Ang-gyu.”

Sunggyu stared blankly at him. He had never heard of that nickname.

“You know, Angry and Sunggyu? Ang-gyu?” Howon chuckled at that. At that, Sunggyu was indignant, about to rebut the nickname when Howon added, “Well, you can thank Woohyun for that nickname.”

Sunggyu didn’t even know what to say anymore. The likelihood of Woohyun truly living to see the next sunrise was becoming slimmer at the moment.

“I have a better nickname, though,” Howon smirked a little. Sunggyu didn’t like the feeling of that smirk, if that made sense. Seeing the look on his face made Howon look every part of a cat that had caught a mouse in its trap. “Though, I won’t tell you. I kind of don’t want to die yet.”

He patted Sunggyu on the back, taking his arm back.

 _Good,_ was all Sunggyu could think, at least there was one less thing to stop himself from combusting at that very moment.

At the moment, he didn’t fully process the fact that Howon said he was going to spread a new nickname like wildfire for the next week. He simply filed that piece of information in his brain for future use. However, Howon was not done with torturing him yet, it seemed.

He wiggled his eyebrows a little, making Sunggyu have a really bad feeling about what was going to come out of his mouth next. And he was not wrong.

“Anyway, I’ve always thought of you as the whipped one in the relationship, although people may disagree since you’re always so angry. You’re _totally_ whipped for him.” Howon took a drink from his tea, looking every bit the smug asshole he was.

Sunggyu could only stare in shock and then, “Okay, that’s it. I need to go home, lock myself in the bathroom, and have a nice long bath. Then, I will throw away all of my electronics for the weekend, so no one can bother me and cause me to actually spontaneously combust,” Sunggyu muttered to himself, throwing his hands into the air before he actually throttled the other man. He had no idea why so many people thought he was in a relationship with Woohyun. So many of his ex-girlfriends even thought that.

He turned away from the ranking tower and marched himself right out of the school with his work bag in tow, ignoring Howon’s smug ‘Have a nice weekend!” and Woohyun’s “Where are you going? I want to come too!” If he obliged and let Woohyun join in, he was probably going to obliterate him for that creative nickname, _Ang-gyu_.

That weekend, he turned off all communications with the outside world and just immersed himself in dramas. At least he could laugh at other people’s misery and have popcorn with it. Forget exercising; he was going to give up anyway. It gave Woohyun one less reason to bother him, since he always insisted that having a buddy during jogs was better than being alone.

However, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander once in a while, bothered by how Howon thought he and Woohyun were more than friends. Why did so many people think that?

That remained a mystery to be solved.

According to Sunggyu, anyway.

-

When Sunggyu returned to work on Monday, he had half-expected Woohyun to bombard him with “Where were you?” or “Why couldn’t I contact you?” However, he was met with radio silence from the other who had left as soon as he entered the faculty members’ shared office. He could only scratch his head a little, tilting his head a little to the side before straightening it. He shook his head, deciding that something was really off but he would ignore it. He liked peace and quiet.

However, as Sunggyu made his way through the hallways before the start of classes, he couldn’t help but wonder why all of the faculty members he had greeted, looked rather… amused. He had a really bad feeling about this…

Shaking it off, he taught classes as he normally did. Thankfully, there was nothing that he could note that was out of the ordinary or something that looked like Woohyun had pre-mediated. However, it was clear that whatever had gone on last week had caused students to not fear him as much as they used to.

Lee Sungyeol seemed to find him particularly amusing. Every single time they made eye contact while he was teaching during math, Sungyeol would burst out into giggles that caused his best friend Kim Myungsoo a few rows ahead to giggle too. That, in turn, caused the most studious of the trio, Lee Sungjong, to turn around to face Sungyeol to tell him to shut up.

When lunch break rolled around, Sunggyu was glad for the break because he was just so over it. He was too drained to even bother with giving Sungyeol detention for being disruptive in class. He could only imagine it ending with Sungyeol just laughing uncontrollably through the detention.

He swung the door to the faculty office open and all the murmuring stopped.

Then there was a burst of giggles.

Woohyun, who finally decided to break the radio silence, giggled, “Ggol-Gyu.” (A/N: This means last place-Gyu, a reference to INFINITE’s variety show Ranking King; it was a nickname that Howon gave Sunggyu for ranking last.)

Everyone in the office burst into laughter at that, Howon laughing the hardest out of everyone.

It took a few moments for Sunggyu to register the nickname, try to pinpoint who exactly could have come up with such a nickname, and his eyes narrowed. Sunggyu had just about had it. His target was going to be the one who made his entire weekend miserable and just damaged his reputation beyond repair. He gave a rather maniacal laugh of his own, cracking his knuckles as he twisted his head slightly from side to side.

Everyone fell silent, all looking on in confusion, wondering if the scary Kim Sunggyu had finally snapped from his temper. However, Howon and Woohyun recognized that laugh and they had looks of horror on their faces. Sunggyu had only ever laughed like that one other time in his life. That was in high school many years ago and that was when the class bully had mistakenly thought him to be someone that was an easy target. What had happened the class bully was not something either of them would wish upon anyone else.

“Lee. Ho. Won!” Sunggyu emphasized each syllable. At that, Howon could only gulp in terror as Woohyun let out a sigh of relief. He really didn’t understand why Sunggyu was so mad at him these days (or just mad in general), anyway, but he wanted to make up for it (or make it better).

A rather devious grin made its way onto Woohyun’s face as he quickly grabbed Howon who was standing near him, holding him down to his spot. “Hurry!” Sunggyu could only oblige, approaching a Howon who was trying to run for his life, Woohyun a willing and amused assistant, and the faculty members who looked on, wondering if this was the next item on the list for why-Kim-Sunggyu-was-actually-not-scary-but-a-comedian-in-his-own-right.

Howon broke free from Woohyun and Sunggyu began to chase him out of the faculty office. Sunggyu stopped at the doorway, much to everyone’s surprise. Howon was obviously oblivious to the fact and actually began to yell as he ran for his life down the hallway, past a crowd of students that were minding their own business. They watched as he ran for his life, looking every bit confused.

Sunggyu coolly made his way back to his seat, albeit a little awkwardly, that made the other teachers laugh a little, though they didn’t show it.

“Well, he’ll be known as the one who hallucinates to the students now,” was all Sunggyu commented.

Woohyun broke out in a shit-eating grin, throwing an arm around Sunggyu’s shoulder, “Now _that’s_ my best friend.” He was given a sharp glare in return, which made Woohyun pout a little at the older man.

“What did I do?”

And then he added, “Are you okay?”

Sunggyu chose not to answer and just groaned, knowing that Woohyun really wouldn’t get it, sinking further down into his chair. That earned a chuckle from all the other faculty members who went on with minding their own business.

“I can make some cute faces to make up for it. My mom has always liked it. She says they’re healing, and they can bring anyone out of their bad mood.”

“That’s your mom that told you that,” Sunggyu drily said in response.

Woohyun didn’t get it, “Yea, and so?”

Sunggyu twitched.

“Some hearts?” he made a tiny heart with his thumb and index finger crossing slightly.

“Big hearts?” he asked, making one with the shape of his arms. Sunggyu groaned, looking in the direct opposite direction. “Just stop.”

Woohyun grinned at that, “Does that mean I am forgiven then? Or you’re no longer in a bad mood?”

No response.

“Are you that lonely Sunggyu?” Woohyun questioned him and Sunggyu could see that the other staff members have begun to be interested in their conversation. They began to eavesdrop in a very not-discrete manner, wanting to hear any updates to last week’s shenanigans, which was what the topic of the conversation was evidently steering towards. Sunggyu could only thank the lucky stars that Ms. Jeon was not in the office at the moment.

Woohyun’s voice dropped to a whisper that was almost the equivalent of a stage whisper, which was: not very quiet. “I am still working on it.”

At the reminder of the mess he made last week and the pledge he made to continue on with his mischief, Sunggyu was almost livid.

“Just leave me alone!” was the quiet roar in reply, and it was weak and lacked conviction. He has long known that once Nam Woohyun put his mind to it, no one could stop him at all.

Woohyun cackled in delight, knowing Sunggyu wouldn’t hurt him and that Sunggyu wasn’t really that angry, even though he seemed like it. Woohyun had witnessed him angry before. When he was really angry, he wouldn’t speak at all.

“Don’t worry,” Woohyun said with a twinkle in his eyes, “I know you are pleased with my efforts. Dongwoo and I are working overtime on our next plan. You will be foaming at the mouth—”

“With displeasure, I suppose,” Sunggyu supplied for him, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. Woohyun made a noise of disapproval at that, giving him a wounded look.

“Don’t be so grumpy!”

Sunggyu could only resign himself to fate. He sighed.

“Yea, I’ll try,” was all he could muster.


	5. {four}

Jang Dongwoo was never sure about many things unless it related to things that pertained to Korean literature. But he was sure of this: his subscription to life was going to be officially cancelled by Kim Sunggyu himself if he ever knew his involvement in the next event Woohyun was planning in _Operation-get-Sunggyu-the-girl-and-have-him-keep-her-for-once-in-his-life_.

Dongwoo wasn’t stupid, contrary to popular belief, and he knew that a man like Mr. Kim Sunggyu was not to be messed with. So, once he heard about Sunggyu’s less-than-appreciative reaction to the whiteboard fiasco, Dongwoo had been rethinking his life choices. He had promised Woohyun that he would help him until the bitter end of the operation—and clearly, based on the uncomfortable look on his face, he was regretting it.

If there was one thing he knew about Woohyun after meeting him in university, it was that once he put his mind to accomplishing something, he would never relent.

But in his defense, he hadn’t realized his life was at stake when he initially agreed. He had thought that Sunggyu would have appreciated the effort (and he had wrongly assumed that Woohyun knew what Sunggyu would have liked) and he would have never guessed that Ms. Jeon would never show up that day to classes. It was very unlike her to not go to school.

Furthermore, Dongwoo thought that Mr. Kim Sunggyu and Ms. Gayoung Jeon matched very well… they were both forces to be reckoned with. Dongwoo shivered.

“Oh, come on!” Woohyun pouted, crossing his arms like a petulant child who’d been robbed of candy, bringing Dongwoo back to reality (which unfortunately, was probably not going to exist any further than the end of the week, if Sunggyu sunk his talons into him for the next stunt they were pulling).

“You promised!” he frowned at the other man. Dongwoo sighed a little—Woohyun could be rather childish when he wanted to be, and this happened to be one of those times.

“Yea, but I didn’t realize how angry Sunggyu would be from the last stunt we pulled,” Dongwoo trailed off, thinking about the rumours flying around the school among the students that Howon hallucinated and needed to be put in the closest mental asylum there was.

The last thing Dongwoo needed was a bad reputation with the students. They already didn’t take him too seriously and barely paid attention while he was teaching. “You said it would work and he’d be grateful!”

He didn’t really know Sunggyu all too well but: the guy wasn’t as cute as Woohyun insisted he was, and things were not going to go well for either of them if Woohyun tried to pull a stunt like the whiteboard incident again. He would be considered guilty by association—all the teachers thought they were in it together, since Woohyun used to hang out with him all the time before Sunggyu had transferred in for the school year.

Well, he was sure Woohyun would live. He wasn’t too sure about himself. The crazy man had a soft spot for Woohyun from what he’s witnessed.

“Well I hadn’t realized that Ms. Jeon wasn’t going to show up for work,” Woohyun said, pleading Dongwoo with his puppy eyes. “It’ll work this time, I promise. Ms. Jeon will realize how cute our Ggol-Gyu Hamster is, and I will be finally at peace, knowing that he has finally got together with his one and only!”

Dongwoo winced at the nickname, hoping that Sunggyu wasn’t around to hear that.

The man had a way of appearing right when you really didn’t need him to. He once again contemplated his life choices and then chewed on his lips, “You know, I get that you guys are best friends and all… but why are you so invested in his love life? Howon thinks you guys are dating and this is all a conspiracy theory so that no one knows you guys are dating or something.”

Howon was also very keen on gossiping all the time, so Dongwoo wasn’t sure how much he believed him. He had to admit though, it did seem very plausible ever since Howon had brought it up with him.

Regardless, if anything, he believed Woohyun should be more concerned about _his own_ love life. Dongwoo had no idea how this guy survived this long, being this socially clueless. And _that_ was coming from him.

“What are you guys doing?” _that_ came from a very-recognizable voice.

The two of them jumped apart, Woohyun hitting his head on the top of the table. They’d been having a meeting for _Operation-get-Sunggyu-the-girl-and-have-him-keep-her-for-once-in-his-life_ , at Woohyun’s insistence, under his working table in the faculty office (which was also his thinking space).

Dongwoo was long learned that sometimes with Woohyun, you just shouldn’t ask because there would be no plausible answer.

“Ow!”

Peering from above was Sunggyu, lips twitching a bit in annoyance. His eyes narrowed at the two teachers who scrambled out from underneath the table.

“Don’t worry about it!” Woohyun brightly smiled at his best friend.

Sunggyu shuddered, “Oh, I’ll definitely _not_ worry about it alright.” As if he didn’t hear the sarcasm in his voice, Woohyun chuckled, rubbing his hands together in glee, “It’s all under control.”

Dongwoo sometimes wondered if he understood sarcasm.

“Very reassuring,” Sunggyu muttered, looking downright glum. He definitely didn’t believe what his best friend said. What Sunggyu said seemed to go in one ear and out the other for Woohyun.

Sometimes, even though Dongwoo has witnessed and heard Sunggyu in his anger, he wondered if the man was a saint for putting up with Woohyun and his antics. Woohyun seemed to have a knack for doing things that made him all riled up and Dongwoo really couldn’t blame him… he sometimes wondered if Woohyun thought before he acted.

Sunggyu then eyed Dongwoo, making him shiver on the spot. His eyes promised pain. That was Dongwoo’s cue to leave.

“I need to go…” he searched his brain for a plausible reason but came up with nothing. He just concluded with, “Yea, I need to go.”

“Make sure to text me!” Woohyun followed him to the doorway of the office and yelled down the hallway in which Dongwoo sped off in. Sunggyu was very irked at that point, rubbing his temples.

That was when Howon decided to make his appearance, making Sunggyu’s cortisol levels spike again.

“Well, well, well…” Howon chuckled as he entered the office—it was just the three of them in the shared faculty office. They were the only teachers, including Dongwoo, who had run off, that had the period off. “Who do we have here? My favourite _duo_.”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with the man who was obviously still annoyed about what had happened last week. Not only did Howon suffer from rumours about his sanity among the students, he had even placed last on last week’s Teacher Rankings. From what Woohyun had told him, it was also the first time Howon had ever placed last in the ranking. Sunggyu couldn’t help but smirk at that.

Howon obviously picked up on Sunggyu’s smug smirk that was obviously related to what had transpired last week and said, “You look like shit.”

Sunggyu was annoyed at that, his eyes narrowing at Howon. “That’s a personal attack, _Lee_.” They’d never gotten along in high school and always called each other by their last names. Nowadays they tried to keep it civil and called each other by their first names most days, but clearly it wasn’t working—it mainly pertained with someone whose name started with a W.

But even Sunggyu had to admit that he hadn’t been looking to sharp these days—he’d been having some sleepless nights here and there, no thanks to Howon who always took the chance to whisper to him when they passed each other in the school, _“When are you going to make it official with Woohyun?”_

He had no idea why Howon thought that he was in a relationship with Woohyun and he also had no idea why he thought that his interest in Ms. Jeon was a cover-up to hide their “blooming relationship”. He also had no idea why Howon felt the need to remind him all the time that he thinks they’re in a relationship.

It was agonizing to know that Howon thought that—what if Ms. Jeon thought the same and he immediately disqualified any chance of wooing her because of that? Speaking of… he still hadn’t figured out how Woohyun figured out he liked Ms. Jeon… Woohyun was always clueless and Sunggyu definitely would have _never_ told Woohyun to help him with anything like wooing someone.

“It’s nothing but the truth, _Kim_ ,” Howon spit right back. “I bet I’ve been making you think really hard these days.” He smirked at that, proud, surveying his handiwork of Sunggyu’s dark eyebags, “You had it coming. Someone had to make one of you step up and it definitely wouldn’t be the idiot over there.”

Sunggyu had been feeling tired for most of his conversation with Howon, but he was livid at that, “Take that back. Don’t call him an idiot.”

That was when Woohyun interrupted, deciding that he had enough of standing on the sidelines. Woohyun looked back and forth between the two of them, “Is there something that I’m missing here?”

Howon just looked over to Woohyun, sighing a little. Then, he gave a meaningful look to Sunggyu, who didn’t say anything but glared. Turning his back to them, he made his way out of the office while pulling his phone out of his pocket, presumably to find Dongwoo, who also had the period off.

Woohyun looked very lost, studying Sunggyu who was still glaring at where Howon had been standing at the door of the office, “Are you okay?” A frown appeared on his face, knowing that his best friend didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

Sunggyu didn’t know how to respond because there had been a lot of things on his mind recently. He looked over to Woohyun, giving him a troubled smile, “Yea.”

Woohyun continued frowning, “You’re lying, aren’t you?”

He didn’t reply.

He took that chance to say, “Don’t worry! You’ll be fine again!” A spark appeared in his eyes. It was what Sunggyu could describe as the kind of sparkle that Woohyun always had in eyes, right before he dunked his life upside down for the umpteenth time. Based on that very bright look that could put even the sun to shame, Sunggyu was sure that it was going to happen _very soon_. His doom was near.

Sunggyu’s head nearly exploded from the stress.

-

Sunggyu had wrongly assumed that because a good three weeks had passed since the whiteboard confession, Woohyun had forgotten about his plans to “help” Sunggyu temporarily. After all, test season was approaching for the students and the teachers were also very busy.

Clearly, Sunggyu was proven wrong one day early in October. He hadn’t been able to find Woohyun, who had been missing nearly the entire day (and probably avoiding him) and had also been radio silent over the weekend. Thinking that Woohyun didn’t feel like speaking to anyone now, since he did have his moods where he wanted to be left alone, Sunggyu had settled on digging into his lunch alone in the faculty office.

It was the moment when he was about to dig into his lovely bibimbap when the intercom to the school burst to life during lunch break. The crackling of the speakers throughout the school made some people wince. Sunggyu was not one of them. He was far too hungry to care about static noise.

As he was placing a spoonful of his lunch into his mouth and began chewing, he almost choked and spit out everything in his mouth when he heard Woohyun’s voice come alive overhead.

“Hello everyone!” he cheerfully greeted, “as all of you know, this is your lovely music teacher Mr. Nam Woohyun.”

He was no longer hungry.

Sunggyu coughed, pounding on his chest. He grabbed his water bottle on his desk, quickly unscrewing the cap and gulping down a mouthful of water. Then he screwed the cap back on and stood up in his chair abruptly.

This better not be what he thought it was.

All the teachers in the room looked at him, including Ms. Jeon, who was holding a piece of paper and looking thoroughly amused. On her desk sat the envelope in which the piece of paper had come from, which made Sunggyu’s stomach violent at the sight.

It had Woohyun’s handwriting on it.

“… I would like to take this chance to help my one and only best friend Mr. Kim Sunggyu with what he was too embarrassed to do and help him in his quest to woo Ms. Jeon, as all of you know.” He cleared his throat over the intercom.

Great, now he also confirmed the rumours. Ms. Jeon didn’t look up at him, but Sunggyu was sure she felt awkward about everything going on—Sunggyu was almost certain he had no chance with her now. They hadn’t spoken since the second week of school; that was the week before Woohyun had somehow found out he had a crush on her and began to plan to help him, much to Sunggyu’s dismay.

“Dear Ms. Jeon…”

Sunggyu almost wanted to jump out the fourth storey window at that point.

“I cannot compare thee to a summer’s day for I am not the one in love with you. But I would like you to know how much Kim Sunggyu means to me.”

Sunggyu’s eyes nearly bugged out at that. Was this supposed to be a love letter to Ms. Jeon or himself? Sunggyu had no idea what was going on anymore. But he did know that he had to stop Woohyun before it was too late, and he embarrasses him so much that he can no longer walk out of his home without a paper bag over his face—he ran out of the faculty office, in the direction of the broadcasting room.

“No running!” the principal shouted after him when he rounded a corner. The principal had been patrolling the hallways to make sure the students were behaving. Kim Sunggyu had half a mind to tell the old man to mind his own damn business and that it was urgent, but he didn’t and just ignored him. He needed to save his breath for running.

Woohyun wasn’t too good with his words and would have never been able to coherently use something from Shakespeare so he definitely had some help with… whatever this was. He narrowed his eyes. Jang Dongwoo had been nowhere in sight the entire day—he definitely played a role in this.

“I think Sunggyu is very much like a river. He’s strong and he has varying moods. But in the end, he still is teeming with life and can support a whole village. Hmm… this sounds pretty poetic. I’m not sure if Sunggyu is like a river, he’s more like oranges to me. He’s pretty sour but… oh wait, I should follow the script.”

Sunggyu was going to murder Dongwoo. Woohyun had never been able to use similies properly and if he did, they had never been very flattering.

He ran down the hallway, ignoring the students who were staring at the speakers, clearly amused. He ran past the two-Lee-and-Kim trio. Sungyeol was dying of laughter. He ignored them too. He flung the door to the staircase open.

His lungs were burning (he hated exercising) as he stumbled down the staircase to the third floor, swinging open the third-floor staircase doors. He continued to run like his life depended on it.

He was definitely _not_ jogging with Woohyun this weekend because he’d got his fill of exercise today. He was going to sit down, relax, watch dramas, and ignore everyone’s messages over the weekend. His mother had been nagging him recently about getting a girlfriend since he was approaching thirty.

“… I knew Kim Sunggyu since he was a grumpy middle-schooler and he already had back pain then. He has a rough heart and I think he’s kind of like a dwarf hamster. They’re always so grumpy and all they do is eat and sleep. Sometimes they don’t exercise just like Sunggyu. Oh wait, I should read off the script. Sorry! But I think he’s a good match for you and you should consider him because…”

He wildly swung the door to the broadcast room open and was greeted by Woohyun who looked at him in surprise. He was sitting down in front of the intercom microphone, looking every bit innocent.

“Oh! Hi Sunggyu!” his voice echoed all over the school.

Sunggyu strode over to where Woohyun was sitting and clicked the intercom shut. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Where’s Jang Dongwoo?” he thundered. “I need to speak with him.”

“Well if you want to thank someone for this,” Woohyun said, sitting straighter in his chair, “look no further! I can pass the message along!” He looked every bit proud of himself.

Sunggyu cracked his knuckles and that cued Woohyun that whatever was awaiting Dongwoo was probably not pleasant. And that maybe Sunggyu wasn’t too pleased. He gulped for his first friend at the high school.

“I need to thank him for his poetic input,” Sunggyu drily said, rotating his neck a little. Woohyun had never been one to like public speaking, nor did he write speeches. Sunggyu was almost a hundred percent sure that this was all Dongwoo’s idea.

And he was right.

Dongwoo hadn’t been planning on helping Woohyun anymore but Woohyun kept on whining and whining and whining that Dongwoo got sick of it and decided to help. Woohyun had raved about a drama where the male lead proposed to the female lead over the intercom, which was what inspired the latest shenanigans, after Dongwoo mused that it would be great way to propose to someone in real life.

It was definitely a lost cause for Sunggyu to do anything as romantic as that, but Woohyun had insisted he could propose over the intercom in Sunggyu’s stead by trying to “sell” his best friend to Ms. Jeon, who he was beginning to assume was a very unwilling customer.

He was determined to make Sunggyu sound as amazing as he was to her so that she’d think he was wonderful and start talking to her. Woohyun has noticed that she never really interacted with Sunggyu and avoided him.

“That doesn’t sound very genuine,” Woohyun interjected before Sunggyu could continue. “I will not betray Dongwoo like that! He told me his hiding spot and told me to come find him there if he didn’t show up to his next period class right beside mine.” Ah, so the man was hiding somewhere. Smart.

“Tell me,” Sunggyu demanded.

Woohyun looked very conflicted and nervous. He stood up, shifting from foot to foot, before finally beginning to pace. Then stopped. Then paced. He looked over to Sunggyu, who looked very annoyed and was still waiting for an answer. Then it seemed like he made up his mind when he declared, “This is all for you, Dongwoo!” That sentence irked Sunggyu a little, but he pushed that thought away.

“Charge!” Woohyun shouted as he charged towards his best friend, who had totally not been expecting it. He froze, unable to move as he watched his friend run at full speed towards him.

And that was how Sunggyu found himself waking up in the nurse’s office with no recollection of what exactly happened before his world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates from now on will be once every two-three weeks. Sorry! I will update more than once on the weeks I have less things going on in my life.
> 
> School has started and before I am a writer, I am student.
> 
> NOTE: I am also looking for a beta reader.


	6. {five}

The first thing he registered was the grimy-looking ceiling and the unsettling smell of antiseptic. The next thing he registered was the white walls of the infirmary (and also Mr. Han’s office, often called the nursing office) in the high school. And the final observation he made was that someone was calling for him and it sounded awfully like Woohyun—he promptly decided that he was going to ignore that particular person for now, before his head burst again from the stress of listening to him speak. 

He shifted a little, realizing that he was also laying on a bed and the blankets were pulled over him. He shifted a little further in his position, and caught a small glimpse of a particular man who looked very guilty. He was sitting on the plastic chair provided at the bedside of the nursing bed, looking every bit like a very apologetic child that had just been scolded. 

One look at the distraught Nam Woohyun at his bedside was enough to tell him what probably happened after Woohyun had charged, even though he couldn’t remember the exact details leading up to Woohyun charging toward him. From what his foggy brain could recover, it involved an intercom, something embarrassing (thank god he couldn’t remember right now), and Jang Dongwoo. 

He was certain that he was going to recall what exactly went down right before he was attacked by Woohyun very soon. And he didn’t like that. 

Too bad he couldn’t forget everything that happened in the past month involving Woohyun and his determination to set him up with Ms. Jeon. It would save him the emotional distress. 

That was when Sunggyu stopped tuning him out, focusing on what he was saying. 

“You’re awake! Thank god! I’m so sorry!” his voice was louder than it needed to be. 

Sunggyu just groaned, throwing a hand over his eyes at the ringing sound his head was making from how loud and disruptive Woohyun was being. He wanted to throttle Woohyun now, forget the dinosaur-teacher-Dongwoo. His pain everywhere was more imminent than the embarrassment he felt. 

His head hurt like hell and his neck was beginning to feel sore (and that was adding onto his chronic back pain, that seemed to hurt right now more than it usually did). He was getting too old for Woohyun and his disastrous solutions to unexpected situations. 

“You try this stunt one more time, I swear I’m never going to talk to you again,” Sunggyu groaned, peeking over at the man who was fortunately still looking slightly guilty. Woohyun looked a little upset at that, but then a bright look appeared on his face, signalling that he recalled something in the distant past that Sunggyu used to say (that, he would never admit it even if you tried to force out of him). 

Woohyun pouted a little at that, although he was fighting a playful grin that was threatening to burst from his lips, “You’re joking with me, you won’t ever do that to me!” He slapped Sunggyu on the arm in a playful manner, not knowing the man was currently in pain.  

Sunggyu nearly shrieked in pain. After the aftershocks of the slap subsided, he just decided on grumpily grumbling under his breath, saying that he really meant it. His head hurt too much to even muster the energy to speak anymore. 

Sensing that his friend didn’t really want to speak, Woohyun took it upon himself to speak. 

“Anyway,” Woohyun said, “Mr. Han said that you were fine to leave after you woke up. Apparently, you fainted out of shock and exhaustion. You didn’t hit your head or anything because I caught you before you fell, so yay! You won’t forget me, your wonderful friend!” 

Sunggyu muttered some choice words which Woohyun decided to ignore. It sounded awfully like, “God damnit!” 

“But he did say that you were suffering from dehydration and you seem to not be getting enough sleep these days,” Woohyun continued on, frowning a little at that. But then a very devious smirk appeared on his face, making Sunggyu know that whatever was coming out of his mouth next was going to make him annoyed. “I think that it’s related to you not joining me on the weekly jogs we’re supposed to do every Saturday. You’re out of shape, Sunggyu.” 

Sunggyu decided to pretend he didn’t hear that. No thank you. 

“I know!” he perked up. He sat up a little straighter on the plastic chair in the nursing room. “We should resume our weekly jogs with vigour and this won’t ever happen again!” 

Sunggyu withered on the spot from just listening to that last statement from his friend, sinking underneath the covers. He would shudder, but he didn’t have the strength to. The last thing he needed was Woohyun to show up at his door this weekend and try to make him go out on a jog. Thankfully, his friend didn’t have access to his apartment building and he also didn’t have a copy of the keys to his apartment, otherwise he was sure he would invite himself in and drag him out of bed. 

Woohyun was very fit and Sunggyu… was just not, and he intended to keep it that way. He enjoyed sleeping in, snacking, and dramas too much. His new year’s resolution for the year was long forgotten. 

He didn’t forget those weeks he ran out in the cold with Woohyun in January before deciding to throw the towel in for his new year’s resolution. Screw getting into shape. 

Sunggyu may not have the strength to shudder or vocally express himself like he usually did, but he had the strength to scowl, so he did, “You can leave now.” 

Woohyun pouted at that, “Let me stay until your parents come at least.” 

At that, Sunggyu sat straight up on the bed at lightning speed, his back groaning in protest—but never mind that. “You what?” 

His best friend looked a little guilty for once in a long time, “Well, I called your parents right after you collapsed.” 

Sunggyu glared at him almost immediately. He hadn’t spoken to his parents in about a month’s time and had been ignoring their calls because they were being so annoying. The last thing he really wanted was to see his parents.  

The last time they’d seen each other, Sunggyu had yelled and stormed out of the sub-urban home. Woohyun knew all about it because Sunggyu made him go drinking with him at the local bar after he got home. 

“B-but I thought you were dying!” he protested. “The first thing I thought of was your parents.” Then as an afterthought, he added, “And your sister.” 

The last thing his older sister needed to hear about was the reason why he collapsed. She would never let him live it down. 

“But I called them back after Nurse Han said that you were fine; just shocked and exhausted. Oh, and your sister wanted me to pass this on to you.” Sunggyu withered a little further on the spot, when another devious smirk showed up on his friend’s lips. His sister never had anything nice to say to him. In fact, she was very much like Woohyun and loved stirring up shit in his life. “She told you to stop marathoning dramas on the weekend, you fool, and to start exercising.” 

Woohyun puffed up a little after that, “In fact, she entrusted me to whip you into shape!” 

Sunggyu just opted to flop down into the covers (and regretted it because his back and head hurt) and sunk further down into his sheets. 

It was in that exact moment when the door to the infirmary swung open, revealing his parents who looked very concerned—well his mother was, while his father looked stoic and rather indifferent. 

“Are you okay, Sunggyu?” Ms. Kim asked, reaching over to touch her son on the forehead to check his temperature. She was very cold and Sunggyu didn’t like it, though that wasn’t the only reason why he didn’t want her touching him on the forehead. Sunggyu pushed her hand away from him, a very calm and neutral expression on his face. “I’m fine.” 

She clucked her tongue at his expression, clearly picking up that her presence was not very welcome, much less her husband. “Is this how you treat your mother who has traveled this far to see you?” Sunggyu opted to not reply. 

It was at that moment she realized that there was someone else in the room that was not a Kim. She looked over to Woohyun, who was now standing from the plastic chair he was previously sitting on and looking every bit awkward. Sunggyu frowned a little at that, wondering what was up. He was being uncharacteristically quiet and he was fidgeting a lot. 

Usually he would be all up and over Ms. Kim and making her laugh. It didn’t seem that this was the case today... if anything, it seemed that even if Woohyun decided to act that way, his mother would in no way be receptive of it. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her eyes narrowing a little at Woohyun, who flinched at the question. Sunggyu slowly sat up then, carefully observing the animosity that his mother was showing towards his childhood friend. It did not waver. 

If anything, he could see that his father also held the same sort of animosity, although it was not quite to the same level of intensity as his mother’s animosity. 

Something was very wrong, which was a huge understatement on Sunggyu’s part. 

His parents had complained some time ago that he was hanging around way too much with his childhood friend, which Sunggyu shrugged away, because it was usually Woohyun following him around and he was just the unwilling victim. 

“What’s going on?” Sunggyu asked, deciding that he had enough of it and it didn’t seem like the awkward tension in the room was going to resolve itself anytime soon. Woohyun just looked over to his friend with a little shrug and smile that was uncharacteristic of him. 

“See ya,” Woohyun opted to say and walked out of the room, being very careful to stick towards the wall and give as much room to Sunggyu’s parents as possible. 

Something smelled awfully rotten. 

After the door closed gently behind Woohyun, signalling his exit, Sunggyu could only turn towards the only other occupants in the room, wondering how in the hell he was going to get home without feeling more stressed. 

“How has it been going with that lady?” his mother asked and he could only groan in response, slouching. This was the reason why he didn’t like seeing his parents. He was approaching his late twenties and he still had a long life ahead of him, but his parents wanted to see him marry soon, since they lost all hopes on his older sister, Sungmi, who was approaching her mid-thirties. They have been desperately trying to make sure he got his love life started again, especially since he hadn’t dated since university (and profusely regretted it). 

They were more invested than Sunggyu would like and he fathomed it had something to do with them not liking that he ended up not pursuing a doctor’s degree in statistical science; not that they would listen to him when he insisted that it wasn’t what he really saw for himself. He didn’t want a nine to five job where it didn’t feel like he was actually interacting with others in a meaningful way—it was just a shame it took him years after a master degree to realize that. 

Sometimes Sunggyu wondered if he really liked Ms. Jeon; he mentioned that there was an attractive teacher that he knew at school during his orientation training, and would like to get to know her more. His parents decided that meant she was the one and had pestered him non-stop about pursuing her. To be honest, he barely interacted with her and when they did speak, they had no chemistry to speak for... 

Sunggyu just shrugged his shoulders at his mother’s question, clambering from underneath the blankets. His world spun, but that was the least of his concerns now, with his parents swarming around him like bees to flowers. 

“This apathy is not anything to be proud of!” his mother exclaimed, making his head hurt more than he thought was possible. “You’re not getting any younger and you need to get married to a nice and sweet lady, preferably that Ms. Jeon at your school.” 

Sunggyu almost snorted at that—Ms. Jeon wasn’t quite what they envisioned—she was anything but nice and sweet, which he respected. She was straight to the point and had this no-nonsense vibe about her, which he respected greatly. She was considered rude by a lot of their co-workers, but Sunggyu fathomed it was because she achieved the perfect work-life balance and never liked attending the after-school-hours events that were hosted for the teachers and staff members. Sunggyu was the same. 

Then there was Woohyun who went to every single one... 

Sighing and tucking away the weird happenings that had happened between Woohyun and his parents, he slowly made way to the teachers’ bureau, with the company of his mother’s incessant chattering about him needing to be a man and sweep Ms. Jeon off her feet. 

He was very tempted to say that times were different and he could behave however he’d like, but thought otherwise. And he didn’t think it would be a good idea to mention how much worse Woohyun was making the odds of Ms. Jeon liking him in any way. 

But he couldn’t help but realize at that exact moment that he was more concerned about how desperate he would be coming off to Ms. Jeon than if she would even like him in any manner at all. 

“Are you even listening to me?” his mother ended and Sunggyu could only say, nodding his head in agreement, even though he’d pretty much zoned her out. 

“I don’t know what is wrong with both of my children who like being single, but I really need grandchildren. You better be serenading this Ms. Jeon.” 

He just sighed. What was the big deal about getting married anyway? 

- 

On Saturday morning, Sunggyu woke up to his cellphone ringing and a pounding headache. Groaning, he rolled over, squinting his eyes and to get a better view of the display screen that showed him who was calling him at such an ungodly hour (maybe an exaggeration, but Sunggyu liked sleeping in on the weekends). 

He hurt everywhere still. 

He nearly wanted to chuck his phone out the window, seeing that it was his older sister calling him. But knowing her and her temper, as well as her miniscule tolerance for Sunggyu’s excuses for not picking up her phone calls, he thought better. He sat up, stretching a little, before picking up the phone call. 

“What?” he whined before she could even get a word in, “can’t a guy get a good rest on Saturday morning?” 

“It’s already ten in the morning, you pig.” 

Sunggyu was greatly offended by the last word, but opted to not say anything, lest she decided on a more creative nickname. 

“Anyway, I wanted to check in on you,” she said, a hint of a smirk in her voice. “And I also wanted to make sure...” 

The doorbell to his apartment rang. 

Sungmi chuckled on the other end, “Well, that’s my cue to hang up. Have fun!” 

Scratching the back of his head while staring at the blank phone screen in confusion, he slowly stretched, wondering who the hell was here at this ungodly hour. He hoped it wasn’t his parents at all. Yesterday was awkward enough already when they drove him home from where he worked. 

The doorbell began to ring again, this time the person on the other end was pressing on it in rapid succession, not waiting for the previous ring to completely finish chiming. Sunggyu was now annoyed. And he was almost a hundred percent sure that it was not his parents, even though he had borrowed the keys that they had to his apartment—his own key went missing somehow after yesterday’s events. 

He eyed his bedroom door lazily, wondering if getting out of bed was worth it. 

He sat up on his bed, muttering a few choice words under his breath. Then there was silence. He figured that it was probably someone who had managed to get into the complex and was trying to sell something door-to-door. 

He flopped back down onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure what he was going to watch tonight. But he also really needed to get started on marking the tests he administered yesterday... 

That was when he heard the jingling of keys and the sound of a key being inserted to the keyhole. He sat straight up again. His heart was beginning to pick up its pace. Who was it behind the door? 

The door swung open; Sunggyu knew only because of the creaky sound of the hinges when he heard a very distinct voice, which he wished he didn’t need to hear until Monday: “Ggol-Gyu~” 

No longer concerned, other than for his sanity, Sunggyu flopped right back onto bed and gathered his blankets, pulling them over his head. 

“Wakey, wakey, Mr. Grumpy!” Woohyun’s bright voice rang throughout the apartment. The sound of footsteps padding across the wooden floorboard was heard as he made his way through the apartment with the grace of an elephant. 

The door to his room flung open and lo-and-behold, it was Woohyun. 

Woohyun made himself right at home, making sure to jump onto the bed and then perch himself on the corner of the bed where Sunggyu’s feet rested. “Wake up!” 

Sunggyu pretended to be asleep, not wanting to deal with any of his antics this early on a Saturday afternoon. 

“Your sister said you’re awake!” Woohyun said, grabbing a fistful of his blankets and pulling them down, revealing a Sunggyu who was very disgruntled and annoyed, glaring right at him. 

“What do you want?” Sunggyu demanded. 

Woohyun grinned at that, making his insides crawl with trepidation. That smile meant he was up to no good. And then something else registered in Sunggyu’s mind. 

He sat straight up, “How the hell did you get into my apartment complex without me coming down to get you? I never gave you the passcode to the building...” and then he narrowed his eyes, “I didn’t even give you my keys either...” 

“Oh! I forgot to return the keys that I borrowed from you yesterday, remember? I forgot my own keys to the classroom in the office and didn’t want to walk back for them so I begged you to let me use yours.” 

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes at him. “That didn’t happen.” 

Woohyun pouted, hoping that Sunggyu didn’t remember yesterday very well (and boy, did he not realize that Sunggyu wished the same), “Okay, fine, I kind of swiped them off you after I carried you to the infirmary.” 

Sunggyu was not impressed, shown by how he folded his arms across his chest in a very stern manner. 

Woohyun continued on, however, “This is blasphemous! You have keys to my place and the passcode and you never come. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands.” Then a goofy grin appeared on his face, “And well, Sungmi-noona decided to help me too. She gave me the passcode to the complex.” 

Sunggyu made a little note to call his sister and complain to her about not respecting his privacy later. 

“Well, enough of this!” Woohyun said, his eyes with a twinkle that Sunggyu was beginning to dislike more and more each time he saw it. “We need to get ready.” 

“Ready for what?” Sunggyu asked, reaching over to pull at the blankets Woohyun pulled from him. Woohyun had a strong grip on his blankets and wouldn’t budge—Sunggyu was unable to pull the blankets over him. He sighed and decided to cut his losses, flopping right back onto the bed and snuggled into his pillow. 

Woohyun slapped him on the back, making Sunggyu yelp out in pain, “What was that for?” He whirled around to face Woohyun and glare. 

His best friend just cackled and grabbed him by the foot, letting go of the blankets. Sunggyu was beginning to think that particular twinkle in Woohyun’s eyes meant his demise. 

“You better not do what I’m thinking you’re about to do,” Sunggyu’s eyes promised pain. Woohyun just grinned in response and dragged a very unwilling Sunggyu off the bed, making him land on the floor with a large thud! 

“Nam Woohyun, you are going to be extinct!” Sunggyu screamed, backpain and all kinds of pain be damned, as he got up from the floor, ready to hunt Woohyun to extinction. His best friend opted to cackle while running for his life and throwing the keys he stole from Sunggyu to slow him down, making Sunggyu stunned in confusion for a second before chasing after him out of his bedroom and around the apartment. 

Half an hour later, after having a breakfast made by Woohyun that was entirely too healthy for Sunggyu to even look at on a regular day, and two noise complaints by his next-door and downstairs neighbours respectively, Sunggyu found himself in his very under-used sportswear in a very foul mood. 

“Why?” Sunggyu grumbled as he was dragged out of the apartment complex. “Why can’t you leave me alone in peace on my days off?” 

Woohyun seemed to be very good at ignoring Sunggyu’s grumpiness because he was not affected at all by his friend’s very negative attitude. He beamed at Sunggyu, “We got to make sure Mr. Hamster doesn’t get too out of shape or else you’ll get health problems later on in life! I want to live and grow old with you for a very, very long time!” 

Sunggyu muttered a few choice words once again at that last sentence, which was once again ignored by Mr. Sunshine himself. 

Woohyun let go of Sunggyu the second they hit the street outside of the apartment complex. “Alright, let’s get started.” 

Sunggyu just stared blankly at Woohyun. 

“Start! Run!” 

He refused to move. 

“Or else I’m going to embarrass you in front of Ms. Jeon!” 

“Oh, you’ve done plenty already,” Sunggyu muttered under his breath. Woohyun either didn’t hear him, once again, or pretended not to. 

But then he froze... if what Woohyun had been doing so far was considered “helping” ... how would things look if Woohyun wanted to purposely embarrass him? He didn’t want to find out. 

Cursing his life and his situation, Sunggyu began to jog, Woohyun following close behind, with every muscle fibre in his legs begging him for rest almost immediately after beginning. 

Every single time he wanted to stop, Woohyun would yell (and consequently everyone in the surrounding area would hear), “Think of Ms. Jeon!” 

That only pushed Sunggyu to run faster, though it probably looked pathetic to anyone that was watching, his motivation being that he did not want to be seen with the madman who was obviously attempting to be a trainer by being “encouraging”. 

An hour later, Sunggyu found himself in front of his apartment door once again, out of breath and on the brink of being sent to the emergency room. He was already thinking about the ice cream that he had left over from last week as a way to treat himself, but Woohyun must have read his mind because he said, “No ice cream!” 

Sunggyu sneered at that just as he unlocked his door. He purposely opened the door a little and quickly squeezed himself through the crack between the doorway and the door before announcing, “Not today, Satan!” When his brain felt fried, he sometimes acted out-of-character. This moment was one of those times. 

Then he slammed the door shut in his friend’s face and locked the door behind him, proud of himself. Woohyun began to incessantly ring the doorbell and knock at the same time, shouting that he wanted to come in. Sunggyu ignored it all the same, heading towards the kitchen without a care for the person behind the door. All he could think about was his ice cream. He rummaged through his freezer, elated when he found what he was looking for. 

He was just about to get ready to dig into the tub of chocolate chip ice cream and settle on his couch and watch his dramas, when he heard the door to his apartment open. Woohyun looked every bit proud of himself and Sunggyu could only look on with a very worried expression on his face because he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to like this new revelation. 

How did Woohyun get into his apartment...? 

As if reading his mind, Woohyun gave a toothy grin, a familiar sparkle in his eye, “I made a copy of your keys today in the morning before I came by!” 

Then he turned a little serious, “Pass over the ice cream. Bad, Gyu-Gyu. You have to start eating healthy now.” 

It was at that moment Sunggyu wondered who he had wronged in his past life to have such a pest-like, persistent friend who never seemed to ever want to leave him alone. 


End file.
